Distinct
by Shmiggles
Summary: George Weasley considers his post-war life.


Distinct

Summary: George Weasley considers his post-war life.

Fred and George Weasley had always been different people. Fred had been the first to enter the world, and was always the first to enter the party. He was loud, brash, and about as subtle as a handful of excrement swiftly applied to a face.

George, however, was quieter, and more reserved; his ways of doing things were much more subtle.

They were twins, and they were wizards, but these two facts did not add to make them something more.

When they were toddlers, they had, like all toddlers, discovered the joy of making people angry. They also discovered that their identical appearances made this task significantly easier.

Amongst their family, and then at Hogwarts, they quickly became known as pranksters. Their opposing natures had bound them as friends much more than identicality would have, and also aided them in executing their hijinks: they were an equal combination of Fred's bombasticity, which often was the initial inspiration, and George's subtlety, which allowed them to occur.

No one ever suspected their differences though. They were inseparable, and cultivated the appearance of being two manifestations of the same entity. Their ability to finish each other's sentences was based purely on knowing each other's speech patterns.

This skill had an unfortunate tendency to disappear when confronted with an irate Minerva McGonagall.

While Fred was asking Angelina Johnson out in his usual manner in the lead up to the Yule Ball in their sixth year, George was attempting to work up the testicular fortitude necessary to ask Alicia Spinnet out. He didn't until Fred threatened to vanish his robes next time they saw Alicia.

After the war, George had been devastated. He had lost his twin and his best friend. Most of the products they sold were Fred's ideas. They had been together almost constantly since birth. They used the bathroom one after the other (Fred always first). It was as though half of him had died.

When the Weasleys first returned to the Burrow, George went up to his old bedroom and stayed there. He refused to open his eyes, because that would mean seeing two of everything, when there was only one of him. He couldn't leave the room, because he would have to open his eyes. It was all too painful.

On the third day, George had a visitor. It wasn't Mum, Dad, Bill, Percy, Ginny or even Ron.

It was Harry.

George had known that eventually someone would come to get him. He had assumed that there would be a lot of shouting about what Fred would have wanted.

There wasn't.

Harry just came into the room and sat on Fred's bed.

After a few moments, George opened his eyes slightly. Not enough to be able to see anything properly, just enough to see a black-haired blur.

'Aren't you going to drag me out of here?' George croaked.

'No. You'll leave when you're ready to,' Harry said softly.

There was silence for nearly a minute, until George asked, 'Aren't you going to say anything?'

'I won't talk until you're ready to,' Harry said.

After a few moments, George said slowly, 'I'm glad it's you. If… if it were anyone else, they'd be telling me how… how Fred wouldn't want me to waste my life, when he can't have one. And I _don't_ want to waste it. But… but I _just_…'

'But you just don't know how to keep going,' Harry finished.

There was another short silence, until George asked, 'Hermione told you to say that, didn't she?'

Harry chuckled slightly. 'No. I've been through this before.'

'How… how did you… keep going?' George asked.

Harry thought for a moment. 'I had something I had to do. And… and it would avenge them… in a way.'

'I don't have anything like that.'

'There's the shop, George. Maybe one day you could open it again.' Harry stood and left the room.

A few minutes later, George did the same.

Three weeks later, George, Angelina and Lee went to the Leaky to drink to Fred's memory. Lee left after a few, leaving George and Angelina to talk. They had a lot to drink, but George was sure that they mostly talked about the Quidditch team.

The three of them met for drinks a few more times. George suddenly seemed to notice how good-looking Angelina was. He tried to fight it off—she was his dead twin's girlfriend, after all—but eventually the inevitable happened.

When George and Angelina announced their engagement, a lot of people had a great deal to say about it. Mum was the worst.

She asked them straight out when they were both over for afternoon tea. 'Are you sure you're doing the right thing?' she asked, just as they both took a drink of tea.

George was sure that she was giving him a dose of his own medicine, because the two projectile mouthfuls of tea sailed around her in a Shield Charm.

In the end, it was Angelina who explained that Fred and George were entirely different people, that she wasn't marrying George as a substitute for Fred, and that her relationship with Fred had been mainly physical anyway. (Mum had exploded at that point.)

At their wedding, they offered a toast to Fred's memory.

Looking back on it, George thinks that naming his first son after his dead twin was an extremely stupid idea.

It was so stupid that it was the kind of thing that _Ron_ would do.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, a great way of commemorating his brother, but now Fred seemed to have a complex about living up to his namesake. It was perfectly fine for Fred's cousin James, because he was naturally a troublemaking little shit, but Fred's deviousness was more of a witty nature. It didn't lead itself well to pranks, but he seemed to have some fun in setting them up with his cousin anyway.

George knew better than anyone that everyone was completely unique. He would have to have a word with his son.

When it came time for their second child to be born, George and Angelina decided that it was high time for a prank. They announced that they were naming their daughter after the war's greatest hero: Roxanne.

Hermione was going through Ministry records for a month.

Looking back at it all, George was reasonably happy. His and Angelina's relationship hadn't started in the healthiest of places (although the Leaky had improved since Hannah Longbottom took over), and they often sat up to odd (and even) hours of the night, talking about Fred's numerous exploits. He was the owner magical Britain's leading toy manufacturer and retailer. He and his family were happy.

According to Harry, there was an afterlife. George didn't want to go there any time soon.

He could just imagine Fred compiling an immense piece of parchment entitled 'The Things That George Completely Bollixed Up, Volume VIII'.


End file.
